The Hegelian Principle Helps Explain How the Powerful Got That Way

How did the powerful gain power over the rest of us? In a time when the power and freedom of the average American is being eroded at terrific speed, many of us wonder how this could be happening. What we may not realize it that the powerful have specific tools or principles to use to con the rest of us into surrendering our power to them. One of the most effective principles used in the last several years with great success is the Hegelian Principle.

The principle is simple, consisting of only three steps toward a preconceived goal. Once you are able to see how it works, you may want to analyze many of the events unfolding around you in terms of this principle. As the principle is often used today, it can be explained as:

Step One: Create a problem or conflict – Perceive a problem that exists and build it up out of proportion to its actual importance, or create a problem or conflict where none existed before.

Step Two: Publicize the problem and create opposition to it – Relentlessly place stories about this problem in the major media outlets. Report on it daily until it becomes a steady drumbeat and a truism for the public who then begin clamoring for a solution to this problem.

Step Three: Offer a solution – The best solutions are those that appeal to the emotions of the public and make them think something really good is being done for them, when in fact, something really bad is being done to them. This solution is one that the public never knew it needed until the conditioning of Step Two was successfully completed.

A simple example of the Hegelian Principle at work was the food industries’ conning of the public to throw out their butter and run to buy margarine. It goes like this:Step One: Food industry is geared up to provide food for soldiers during WWII. When war ends, food industry needs to turn its capacity into something it can sell during peace time. It wants to use cheap ingredients to make a high margin product and decides on the manufacture of margarine, but needs to find a way to get the public to buy it. They decide on a scheme to turn the people against butter.Step Two: Food companies spread propaganda convincing the populace that butter is deadly to their health. Appeal to fear. Get doctors and nutritionists to help in the spreading of propaganda. Sponsor medical studies to “prove” that butter is deadly. Convince housewives who had grown up healthy while eating butter that they are placing their families in jeopardy if they serve butter.Step Three: Food companies rush in to save the American public from having to put butter on their tables. They present margarine. Women who want their families to love them stampede to buy margarine. Voila!

working with this principle,—- “terrorist” —“you’re not safe”—- “give us your guns & freedoms and we’ll protect you.”
Mindless lemmings will soon be slaves, without the means to fight for the return of their freedoms.

Juan

The so called “war on terror” comes to mind.
Haven’t he CIA and who knows what other parts of The Empire been creating terrorists in all kinds of ways for years? Al Qaeda was created by the CIA, and OBL was certainly a CIA asset. The so called “rebels” in Syria that the CIA armed and funded are also fundamentalist, Islamic hard-liners.
Hell, the FBI manufactures “terrorists” domestically pretty regularly.
This problem, reaction, solution dynamic is also at work whenever The Empire wants to invade some poor country. They create a boogey man, like Saddam Hussien or whoever, scare the shit outta the public with all kinds of made up threats, WMDs, faked attrocities and all kinds of propaganda to sell whatever it is they want. The goddamn public is so fucking STUPID they fall for it every time-idiots.
As H.L. Menken noted “No one has ever gone broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public.” These words are truer now than they were in Menken’s day.

echar

Could it be that “they” have mastered the art of appealing to emotions, and that the public is too smart for their own good?

Juan

The public are a buncha fucking idiots. Examples of this are endless. They are trained like Pavlov’s puppy. The corporate state through the media rings a bell (9-11, Boston, missing white woman, etc.) and the dumb fucks salivate on que.

echar

Maybe you have been trained to view the general public as idiots?

Juan

Ok, you’re on to me. I went to elitist school to train to disdain the great unwashed hordes.
Oh, come on, you’re just fucking with me now.
Do you seriously believe, based on your own observations, that we have an intelligent, critically thinking, well informed, socially aware, or even semi-literate public?
I view them as idiots because they behave like idiots.
Now, individually, that is another story entirely. Don’t get me wrong, I am not saying that ALL of the people are mouth-breathers, just that they tend to dominate in terms of sheer numbers. They are legion.

echar

When I was younger I used to think people who lived in the country (hicks, hillbillies, rednecks, etc) were idiots. It’s a bias that we are taught. I later got a chance to work with farmers and truckers and realized that they are some really impressive people.

Sure they may not be able to tell you the best place to buy the newest fad fashion, or where to eat to impress the Jones, or some other city type posturing. Yet they are more likely to be able to fix machinery, skin a deer, harvest crops, and such.

This realization rocked my world. Realizing that maybe the city folk are the slow ones, with our single vision blocked by the penny held close to the eye. Or do we, and they belong in that box?

Mostly my point is, are you absolutely certain? If so what is the personal gain from seeing things this way? What is the loss?

Juan

Yes, I get where you are coming from. Of course, it is a good idea to examine our assumptions and try and figure out how they may be serving us, or not. As far as what is gained or lost by seeing things the way I do, I dunno. I’ll be doing some more deep, internal rearranging soon, so I guess I’ll have to get back to you on that.
For me, the idea that most people are pretty fucking stupid is reinforced daily. It’s like looking at the sky and seeing that it is blue, no matter how much I may try to make myself believe something else . . . Sure, sometimes it’s dark or overcast, but for the most part, blue.
As RAW notes, “You know how dumb the average person is? Well, by definition, half of them are even dumber than that.”
Now, it may well be that most people aren’t really that stupid, and are simply the victims of the most sophisticated propaganda machine the world has ever seen, so it is not entirely their fault. I can accept that. But you know, myself and millions of others have clearly seen through the bullshit, so it’s not like it takes a genius to figure it out.

echar

Bernays shat out the demon baby we know as propaganda/public relations/marketing way back in the late 20s. It’s grown several heads and girth since, and shat out replicant demon babies. Sure there’s some pretty stupid people out there.

A dude I grew up with, tripped on acid with, had lots of adventures with grew up to be a fox news Glenn Beck stooge. It broke my heart when I moved back and found out that he was one of them.

It’s not that he’s stupid, I think it’s that he’s complacent. Another dude I grew up with ended up marrying this psycho woman. He just settled, and not just with the relationship. I think he’s lazy. I once asked him if he read. His answer was “what, books? Not unless I have too”.

Juan

Yeah, it may be just plain old laziness too. Also fear, people don’t wanna know. Not just about the world at large, but about themselves as well. That’s really scary.
I know what you mean about people you grew up with who eded up going in very different directions than yourself. My best friend from childhood . . . fucking Jesus got him. We’re talking full on right wing, anti-abortion, fundie, jingo, USA all the way kinda shit. It seems Jesus is just waiting around some corner to grab the next unsuspecting schmuck who comes along. One day you’re doing blow off a hooker’s tight ass, and then the next thing ya know–whammo, Jesus has got you in a head lock.
No shortage of ready made, off the shelf reality tunnels to plug into so you don’t have to think. It’s a lot of WORK to try and figure shit out for yourself; not everyone is up for it. Also, it can leave you quite alienated. So yeah, not everyone is up for that ride.

echar

I know how that goes with the Jesus thing, my friend too. The joke is that he sold drugs… lol. Bingo on the fear-o. Keep up with the good work. Good thing we have disinfo to connect with other people.

Juan

Word:)

Joe Giva

It’s one of the strange things about humanity that our behavior seems to become less rational as it “scales up” to greater and greater numbers. As we become organized into institutions, it becomes more difficult for critically thinking individuals to alter the behavior of those institutions in a meaningful way.

I don’t think people in general are stupid, it’s just that there’s been an enormous and successful effort to create a massive information gap between the people at the top of the hierarchy and those at the bottom. It’s pretty hard to make rational decisions when you’re deprived of information, which is one of the reasons that modern capitalism no longer functions in the way envisioned by Adam Smith. People can’t behave as rational actors in the market, because information that is crucial to their decisions is deliberately concealed from them. The same principal applies to politics.

In fact, I think it’s in the interests of the elite to foster the belief that average humans are extremely dumb–it makes us less likely to trust in our ability to self-organize and self-govern. We come to believe that highly structured institutions, run by “experts”, are the only way to keep the idiots from screwing everything up.

Ted Heistman

Big institutions are too disconnected from reality. People experience reality “on the ground” on an individual basis.

Lookinfor Buford

well said. here’s a thinker

Ted Heistman

I think doing blow off a hookers ass, is a pretty quick path to Jesus actually.

http://pneumerology.com/ pneumerology

When was this ever not true? And yet, human society has evolved. Therefore, there must be some other factor that is more powerful than human stupidity.

Andrew

I propose that this can also be done by taking advantage of actual grave problems without blowing them out of proportion at all.

echar

The problem is real, but the solution is garbage?

Andrew

The solution can be worse than garbage, it can be poison.

echar

Vitriol, and not the good kind.

AManCalledDa-da

It’s actually the result of hundreds of years of careful planning. The plan was brilliant — and evil, if this can be said to exist.

Ted Heistman

The only way to gain power over some one or something is to make them dependent. So basically everyone became a bunch of weak bitches and then elites became more powerful then back in the day when people lived more autonomously.

BuzzCoastin

there are many thing that need be done to exit the system
grow your own food
raise your own animals or hunt
generate your on energy
build your own shelter

not easy to do
but doable nonetheless
especially for those who are looking for a way out
as if their hair was on fire

Ted Heistman

That’s what I am doing right now actually. I would estimate about 25% of my diet comes from wild plants and edible weeds I forage for. I amworking on the hunting part. One of my goals this summer is building a bow and arrows. I live in a small cabin and organic garden 20 hours a day for room and board.

BuzzCoastin

I figured you were on it
but I know a lot are not yet aware of the possibilities
the wild food thing’s wild
very Yule Gibbons